May 25, 2026

by LOIC EKINGA

LUMUMBA’S GOLD TOOTH

there’s a pocket then there is a man

there’s a fils de pute aiming at a body

a black body, a beaten body

now, the fils de pute is the pocket

the fils de pute is pincers, I’m pulled away 

from home, into the fils de pute

we wait for different things: I wait for rot

he waits to land in Brussels to tell his joke

the rot doesn’t come. The fils de pute wipes

the blood off my body, delighted that I survived 

the mouth and blows on the mouth—black body

beaten—black body swollen

All the King’s horses and all the King’s men

were happy that fils de pute could lift

what they deemed a joke to the light and make it glisten.

*

1961, LUMUMBA GETS IN A SPACE SHUTTLE 

I am afraid. 

I'm proud. 

I'm leaving. 

June 30 will not pass—it will orbit

Tell it to your children until it becomes a star.

Pin it on our flag!

They will say freedom was negotiated.

But we remember fire,

blood overwhelming our history's throat,

eighty years collapsing into one wound.

All that is finished.

[T-6.6 seconds: Main engine start.]

The Congo is no longer beneath anyone.

I repeat: The Congo is no longer beneath anyone.

Begin again—without chains, without tribes—

with justice— heavy and bending the future.

The engines call me now. If I do not return, use me.

[...five, four, three, two, one…]

Let the Congo rise—no longer grounded, already among the stars.

*

1961, THE ROCKET TAKES OFF AND LUMUMBA SINGS TO SOOTHE HIMSELF 

Independance Cha-cha to zuwi ye!

Oh Kimpwanza cha-cha tubakidi

Oh Table Ronde cha-cha ba gagner oh!

Oh Lipanda cha-cha tozuwi ye!